Bridgestone HP Sport Discrepancy??? Need help!!!
 

I'm in the process of upgrading my wheels from 19'' to 20'' and I'm therefore shopping around for tires. After searching in tire rack for a while I noticed a discrepancy between 2 bridgestone h/p sport tires, just different in size. I noticed the width of the smaller tire (255/50) appears to be greater than the (275/45), screenshots are included....please notice the "section width" and "tread width" of these specifically!

Anyone has any idea why this happens, I also noticed that the current tire I have 255/50 RFT appears to have a wider section width and tread width than both!

I'm currently deciding on which tire to buy but I thought that going from a 255 to 275 tire would mean a wider tire! Is something wrong here?

Tirerack is great, but go to the mfg site, download the pdf...or call them...

http://productcat.bridgestonetire.co...pp_1422426.pdf

Looks like the 275 is 0.5" wider than the 255/50, comparing the non-RFTs

The RFTs will always have a wider section width due to the sidewall design. I think the tread width will be the same.

Interestingly you are going up 0.7" in overall tire size... and up 1.0" in rim... so the net loss in sidewall is minimized, which is desirable. Net loss is 0.3" or 0.15" per sidewall. Was this in the plan? :)

A

Thanks so much for the info! I was confused by the information on their website which didn't make sense! I am indeed trying to lose as little sidewall as possible so that I preserve the ride comfort and pothole resistance with the new 20 inch wheels. In my previous '08 X5 with the 20 inch wheels, I changed 3 tires and 2 wheels over 3 years due to potholes so I'm tying to give the wheels a little more protection than I had with the 275/40's.

It funny that the day I got my new X5 I remember thinking that the 255's RFT's looked wider than the 275's I used to have on my old X5, but I simply thought that it must be me thinking non-sense but your explanation makes perfect sense.